Let it Rain
by XSuicuneX
Summary: Hinata mourns over the loss of a very dear friend, and then recalls the loss of other dear friends. AU Set sometime after Shippoden, warning for Character Death. Also warning for some slight sensitive material. NejiHina if you squint a bit.


The sky wept that day.

The mood was somber, as grey as the canvas that floated above them could ever be. Hinata thought it fitting, really, that when his presence positively radiated sun and warmth, that his funeral should be so grey and cold. She didn't need her Byakugan to see that she probably wasn't the only one with that notion. She only had to look around and see the faces around her, stricken with grief, to know that this weather was just the right setting for the death of one such as him.

It wasn't fair, really, how when those passed all we seemed to be filled with was sorrow and grief. A funeral for him shouldn't be sad, she thought. It should be filled with life, laughter, joy, and warmth. Just as how he lived.

She shook her head, she could understand the grief though. It was inside herself after all, thought at this moment, with so many deaths and so many tombstones filling alongside his own, the grief was a bit slow in coming.

She started as she felt a slender hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Ino, tear's brimming on the edges of her lashes. Ino…She has suffered her own losses as well. Hinata could remember it so clearly, and her eyes subconsciously slid over to another tombstone, not that far away from the one everyone was paying respects to. Her and her teammates had been walking towards one of the training grounds, when an odd sound had filled her ears. Hinata had recognized Ino's voice, but she was far enough away to mistake the sound as an odd kind of laughing. At first she had dismissed it from her mind, until as it got louder, and they got closer, she recognized it for what it was. Ino was grieving, forcefully, painfully.

It had taken a word from Choji to understand what had happened. Shikamaru had left a week ago for his mission with his team. His genin team. They hadn't come back.

"I-Ino…I…I'm so s-sorry." Hinata had offered what condolences she could, all the while shocked inside herself at the sudden loss, of both Shikamaru, and his three young charges.

Ino was in hysterics, she couldn't be consoled. "He…He's dead! I'm never going to s-see him again!" Her body shook with her sobs. "And the wedding was going to be next month!"

Hinata had then noticed the silver band on Ino's ring finger then. Everyone had known about the girl's engagement to the Nara boy, Ino had certainly broadcasted it to enough people. Hinata had felt her chest constrict in sorrow and sympathy for Ino that day, it had taken everyone to get her to get out of that despair. And even then, Hinata had a feeling the pain was still as strong to the blond as it was that day, albeit, she was better at handling it.

To further this belief, Hinata noticed that the hand on her shoulder, Ino's, still showed the engagement ring Shikamaru had given her. He had chosen silver for her, because, "Gold rings are just so troublesome." Hinata had a feeling that it was more because silver seemed to suit Ino more then gold did. The Hyuuga offered the blond Kunoichi a small smile, and the two of them resumed their attention to the funeral.

She turned to her right and noticed her silent team mate, Shino. He had his own losses too. Two deaths in the family, not counting his mother, who had died before he had been old enough to have any real definite memories of her. One was a distance cousin, another, an uncle. He hadn't said anything, hadn't wept like Ino, at least, no where anyone could see him, but Hinata knew, in his own quiet way, he grieved over the deaths. Her and Kiba had done all they could to help him as he silently mourned his loss, Kiba actually doing better for him in that regard. She hadn't realized how close the two of them had become until that moment.

Ah, Kiba. His loss was even more profound and harder on him than anyone, aside from her and Shino, understood. They all felt horrible for his sister's untimely death, or, as they avoided calling it, untimely suicide. None of them knew the real story, other than Kiba's teammates, and both were sworn to seacrecy. Since the elder Inuzuka had come out of the closet, the main family had been tense, at best, and near violent at worst. She hadn't been kicked out simply because she was the best candidate for the head of the Inuzuka tribe, and she was a damn good ninja to boot. However, it all came crumbling the moment her seacret lover, Anko, had come back from a mission, broken and bloodied on a streacher.

The sick thing about it, Hinata realized, was that Kiba's sister was lucky Anko's body had come back at all. It wasn't as if there was luxery in battle for ninja's to spend looking for and recovering the fallen bodies of their team mates.

In either case, the reason was apparent to those who knew, what the cause for the female Inuzuka's sudden willingness to take her own life was. Without Anko, and with the stress of her parents over her homosexual tendencies, it was just too much. It wasn't fair, however, for the elder Inuzuka to then put all the pressure onto Kiba, who was now next in line to be the head.

Hinata knew that Kiba was going the way of his sister, what with the way he looked at their stoic team mate, and he was fighting against it with enough force to make it unhealthy. Hinata spared a glance at Kiba's current failing relationship focus, the weapon's master Tenten, and could only sigh at the signs already being shown that their relationship was doomed to disaster. Kiba had gone out with pretty much every female in the village he could get his hands on, almost as if to prove to everyone that 'Hey! Look at me! I like girls! I'm totally not gay!' it was almost enough to make him want to slap him sometimes. Almost, after all she was still Hinata. Shy, sweet, compassionate Hinata, who would never show any friend of hers violence, no matter what they did.

At that moment, shy, sweet, compassionate Hinata could only feel numb as she gazed at the tombstone everyone had come to respect once more. She knew she should be crying, weeping, like Ino. She didn't even feel the quiet, contemplative grief, like Shino. Hell, she didn't even feel the forced defensive pressure of denial like Kiba was surrounded with. She just felt…nothing. And it made no sense to her. He had been her everything for so many years, her inspiration to improve, her seacret desire, the quiet joy she kept solely to herself, and anyone else who was observant to notice her hidden attraction. It was all so strange, he had touched all of them there with his vibrant life, his energy, and she couldn't seem to summon up a single emotion for it.

Probebly for the fifteenth time that day she gazed at his tombstone, forcing herself to read the name.

Naruto Uzumaki

A talented Shinobi, and a good friend.

R I P

Suddenly a realization hit her, she was never going to see his bright smile again. She was never going to talk to him, hear his loud and sometimes obnoxious laughter. Never going to see that vibrant orange uniform he insisted on wearing, never going to hear him talking to his team mates at Ichiraku's, never going to hear his proclamations of becoming the next Hokage again. Lastly, she was never going to confess her love to him. It was something she had never gotten around to, especially as she had begun to notice the relationship between him and a certain pink Kunoichi begin to blossom.

Hinata took a chance to look at Sakura now, and saw her freely shedding the tears Hinata herself had seemed unable to shed. It was too much, Naruto's funeral shouldn't have been so sad, this was NARUTO damn it! He was happy! Full of hope! He forced himself since he was a boy and alone in the world to never dwell on his sadness, and now they were betraying that!

Hinata couldn't take it anymore, she knew her numb shell was going to break, and she didn't want anyone to see her, didn't want his tomb to be witness to her breaking. She just started to turn when the second hand of the night landed upon her shoulder, this one a bit heavier and rougher then Ino's had been. She looked up and into the grey-blue eyes of her cousin, Neji. His face held a rare trace of concern as he looked upon her strained features.

He narrowed his eyes slightly as he addressed her. "Is everything alright, Hinata-sama?"

She could only nod and put on a false smile in an attempt to shake him off. "H-hai, Neji-Niisan. U-um, I just n-need to get some air…I'll see you home?" She only hoped that he would read into her unsaid massage and would leave her be.

He only nodded slightly, clearly not convinced at her false charade but seemingly willing to let her pass unchallenged. "Alright, Hinata-sama, would you like me to accompany you?" The fact that he was asking was a showing of respect for her. If it were up to her father, he wouldn't even ask, being the heir to her clan and being such a pathetic ninja meant that she would always have need of a guardian, and Neji, unfortunately, was always the candidate for being that guardian.

"O-oh, no I'll be okay on my own."

Neji nodded slightly, and helped her leave the crowd. As she looked back to find him turning back to the crowd of black clad villagers paying their respects, she felt it was safe to let her shields down enough to do what she really wanted to at that moment.

She ran.

She ran as fast as her legs would carry her all the way to the Hyuuga compound, ran even faster to the main branch quarter of the grounds, practically bolted into her room where she quickly slid inside and just as quickly slid the door firmly shut.

It was then that the walls of numbness finally crumbled. The tears came slowly at first, than grew into a flood. Her body shook only slightly until she ended up curling in upon herself with the trembling. Her moans were whispers at first, but then grew enough that if everyone hadn't been at the funeral at that moment, she was sure someone would have heard her. She wept with all her emotion, with all the pain and sorrow she had expected to feel at the beginning of that damned service. She cried, and moaned, and rocked herself in a fetal position and the tears just wouldn't stop. It felt as if all her joy, all her laughter was gone at that moment, and she wasn't sure if it would ever end. It was as if a shadow had come down upon her, and she couldn't see the light of hope at the end anymore. So deep into her mourning was she, that she hadn't even heard the sound of her door sliding open, or registered the presence of someone she had known since birth sit down in front of her. Only when his hands gripped her shoulders, then pulled her into a tight embrace, did she register the presence of her cousin, doing something completely unNeji like, comforting his pampered Hinata-sama.

He rocked her and whispered comfortingly in her ear, his hands slowly running up and down her back, and Hinata found her sobbing seemed to ebb in his embrace. Eventually the onslaught of emotion did slow, and then dissipate, so she was coherent enough to look back into his face, and thank him.

He only shook his head, and put his hand on her lips so that she wouldn't speak anymore. He sighed, and spoke.

"Hinata-sama…sometimes…you just have to let go. I know it's hard, but…" And it was here that he smiled ruefully. "He wouldn't want you to wallow in pain. He would want you to move on. Right?"

Hinata could only nod, still sniffling from her recent outburst of emotion. "I…I never got to tell him…"

Neji's smile fell, and he nodded, knowing what she meant. "You can't regret what never became, or dwell on what could have been. All you can do is keep going forward, keep moving through life, finding a reason to laugh, to have joy again." He moved his hands to her face and used his fingers to softly stroke her cheeks. "Naruto would want you to live like that. He would want ALL of us to keep on living, like him."

Hinata sighed, he was right, it would be hard, but Naruto wouldn't want anyone to break in sorrow over his loss. It would be a disgrace to his life if she were to do that. He had inspired her to keep fighting, even when no one believed she had an ounce of potential. It was up to her to continiue his legacy, to keep fighting, even in the face of adversity.

So, with a lighter heart then she had before, she smiled her first, true smile of the night. Her hands came up to her cousin's where she squeazed them gratefully. "A-arigato, Neji-niisan."

Neji smiled back at her, lifting one of his hands to tousle her dark hair. "Your welcome, Hinata-sama."


End file.
